An already volatile northeast Asia may be on the brink of more turbulence. Just when you thought it could not get any more unpredictable, reports of internal turmoil suggest the black hole that is North Korea just grew bigger, portending more trouble.

It is not just that Jang Song Thaek, brother-in-law of former leader Kim Jong Il, has been purged and that two of his aides were reportedly part of a wave of public executions.

Mr Jang was widely considered one of the powers behind the throne advising the boy general, Kim Jong Un. Whether or not Mr Jang was a closet reformer, sympathetic to a Chinese-style opening, is likely to be revealed by future developments. But one near certainty is that ill-conceived, erratic and potentially dangerous behaviour looms.